DBT40 Honoree: Rebecca McAdams

Title: Clinical Supervisor of Fellowship

Rebecca McAdams | DBT PHOTO BY LUIGI CIUFFETELLI

Workplace: Jewish Family Services of Delaware

Age: 31

When Rebecca McAdams isn’t chasing her toddler around with her husband, she is dedicated to improving what she considers to be an intergenerational legacy of community service as her great-grandmother was an entrepreneur who also served her local community. 

As the clinical supervisor of fellowship and licensed mental health therapist with Jewish Family Services of Delaware, McAdams regularly mentors rising clinicians and helps increase community access to mental health services through services like the organization’s mobile therapy program. She successfully led state contracts, two state grants and cultivated a culture of learning with her staff, exposing them to more than 10 different clinical training sessions.

To further meet the demands of the Delaware community, which continues to face a lack of health care providers of all varieties, McAdams has also grown her own private practice to include queer affirming treatment and worked with other clinicians to develop a social and networking group in hopes of enhancing mental health resources and support for clinicians across the First State.

McAdams earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a focus on children, family and youth from Bloomsburg University in 2015 and a master’s of education degree in counselor education from Pennsylvania State University in 2017. She has trained in several specialties including  trauma, play therapy and attached-based family therapy. 

McAdams was a member of the Spring 2024 cohort of Leadership Delaware. Her favorite place in the world is Lums Pond State Park where she spent many summers swimming and frog hunting as a camper. McAdams also has a favorite holiday – Halloween – which is the source of an incredible photograph of her dressed up as Scott Calvin when he was half transformed into Santa Claus.